As of today, there is a new CEO over at Time Warner, as president and former Chief Operating Officer takes over the top spot at the media conglomerate. Bewkes will retain the title of president in his new position. Former CEO Richard Parsons, who had served as time Warner CEO for over five years, announced back on November 5 that he would be stepping down effective January 1.
There have been a few interesting moves over at Time Warner over the last several months that could have an impact on the format war, but this could be the biggest.
Back in 2005, when Warner Brothers was a backer of the HD DVD format, Parsons asked Bewkes to find a way to "recharge" falling DVD sales. Bewkes through caution to the wind and suggested that the studio embrace the Blu-ray format if it looked like Blu-ray would be the format consumers would move towards.
Of course this new appointment couldn't have come at a better time, with the entire industry watching Warner to see which format they would choose to back exclusively. With many of the biggest HD DVD proponents at Warner resigning over the last several months (reportedly after top brass chose to pass on an exclusivity offer from the HD DVD Promotions Group), most in the industry already felt that Warner would be leaning Blu.
Given that Blu-ray maintained its significant sales advantage through the all-important 4th quarter, New Line Cinemas need for region coding (making their new releases time Blu-ray exclusives), and now Bewkes appointment, it seems that all the 'ducks are in a row' for Warner to go Blu-ray exclusive within a fairly short time period.
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